


Dreamer's of The Day

by Barryb338



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Demon Summoning, Demonic Possession, Demons, Enemies to Friends, Friends to Enemies, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Kidnapping, Magic, Major Character Injury, Male Antagonist, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Occult, Original Character(s), Rescue, Robots, Shooting Guns, Supernatural Elements, Swearing, Violence, character nightmare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 20:39:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 17,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10974918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barryb338/pseuds/Barryb338
Summary: I first had the idea to make this story last year but I had very little confidence in myself to make it. Flash forward to last month I decided to take a risk and write this bad boy. Please leave a kudos if you enjoyed, and please leave constructive criticism in the comments if you didn't or think I could do better, feedback is always appreciated.





	1. Chapter 1

"Twenty minutes 'till we land, go check on him" the muffled voice spoke, it was hard for Thomas to hear much of anything due to the sack these fine gentlemen placed over his head, but he could make out the word "package" and he guessed it meant him. He tried to focus on trying to guess what shiny chariot he was thrown into, he figured it was a helicopter though, all he had to go on was the feel of cold metal and the foul odor of old puke, he tried to move his hands and stopped when he realized that they'd been zip-tied together. He tried to wrap his mind around the situation he was in, like how'd he go from binging on cheap booze to having the door kicked down, armed thugs shouting in his face, and finally having one lucky  clown having the honor of sending his rifle butt directly to his temple, life was funny that way.  He heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming toward's him, the only thing he could see was the small glimmers of light that came from the small holes in between the fabric, the man stopped in front of him and with a quick yank took the bag off his head. Finally he could see where he was, his hunch about where he was  correct, a helicopter full of six armed commandos, some took glances at him but others just kept to themselves opting to stare at the wall behind him, suddenly the man spoke. "Mr Rutherford is it? Listen carefully we're gonna ask you some questions and your gonna answer them to the best of your abilities, understand?" His voice was irritating to listen to, like a jackhammer to your ears, he wasn't interested in being a smart ass, the man's entourage convinced him to answer truthfully and he nodded in agreement. 

The man had pulled a photo from one of his vest pockets holding it out in front of Thomas, it'd had looked like a surveillance photo, "Does this man look familiar to you?", David Randolph was the man's name, a real son of a bitch, his rap sheet made the Manson family look like angels. "Only what I hear on the news" He told the man, "Well then get ready to have your mind blown" the man replied back. The man dug into his pocket and brought out a wallet sized device and placed it on the floor of the helicopter, suddenly a wave of holographic information on Randolph came up, previous arrests, warrant's, previous occupations, sightings; It seemed like whenever he sneezed these people were there to write about it. "Two month's ago, U.S. surveillance picked up a possible location of Randolph in Arizona, near the border", suddenly the hologram zoomed in to a overhead view of the U.S.-Mexico border along with photo's of federal agents, and empty bullet casings recovered from a crime scene. "When federal agents searched the nearby town all they found were over a hundred bullet casings and several dead civilians, as if his already large list of crimes didn't give him enough recognition, now he's a national celebrity, wouldn't be surprised if people all the way in China knew who he was by now." Thomas settled in his spot uncomfortably, he still didn't know who these people were, or what they wanted with him, but before he had the chance to ask the pilot yelled to the interrogator, "Were here sir!". Thomas looked out the window of the chopper, it was a airfield, several armored vehicles and several more armed soldiers waiting for them. 


	2. Chapter 2

The helicopter touches down and all the inhabitants came piling out of the chopper and the leader of them grabbed Thomas by the arm and lifted him to his feet pushing him forward out of the chopper. Thomas looked around to try to get a better understanding of his surroundings but all he could see was the small airstrip where he was and what seemed to be an endless forest around the area, then he gave a glance at the armored vehicles waiting for him and his company. Heavily armored black vehicle, and several armed guards outfitted with assault weapons and ballistic armor. The interrogator nudges him forward towards the convoy and tells two soldiers near the middle car to get ready to leave. Thomas is escorted inside of the back and three commandos follow, he hears a banging outside and the convoy begins to go to wherever they were taking him. Thomas had no idea how long they'd be on the road, his guess was a few hours, he wasn't a native to the area which made him more nervous. He tried talking to the other soldiers in the vehicle with him but they all said the same thing; "I'm not authorized to tell you sir", just when he thought he'd close his eyes and catch on the sleep he lost when he was taken a whole new sound filled his ears. 

All of a sudden Thomas convoy stopped dead in it's tracks and he heard the sounds of gunfire as loud as a firework show during the fourth of July. As he was trying to listen to the commotion outside, the commandos in the vehicle prepare their weapons and swung open the doors to the back, they had the courtesy to lock them before going off to deal with the trouble outside though it didn't make Thomas feel any safer. Through the walls he heard shouting but he couldn't tell who's it was, then there came the gunfire which you'd swear anyone all the way in Dallas could hear, a small explosion erupted near Thomas vehicle probably to make sure it couldn't be drivable again. Suddenly the chaos fell silent and he heard footsteps coming to the locked doors of his vehicle, he had heard them slap something onto the doors and run away, BOOM the doors collapsed onto the ground and in came two people not dressed like the soldiers he had been company with. They talked with each other for a moment and then one of them walked inside the truck, "Mr. Rutherford please stay calm, were gonna get you away from here" the stranger help's Thomas to his feet and out of the stuffy vehicle and it was there that he finally got to see what the commotion was. It was the soldiers that he came with, all of them dead with bullet casings and destroyed cars all around, even with all this they never stood a chance, but he didn't have a lot of time to look around the battlefield as the two of his "saviors" led him down the hill and to the path which led to a small town quite a ways away, the unknown duo bring Thomas inside what he assumed to be their house. "This is where were gonna lay low for a while until help comes, so try to get comfortable, I'm Luis by the way, the quiet one is John, don't let it get to you though, he's very kind once you get to know him." Before Thomas could introduce himself a large radio set came to life in the room behind Luis and he dashed inside and closed the door, what a vacation.


	3. Chapter 3

Thomas had been temporarily living in the ghost town for about two weeks now, he did a bit of everything he could from taking care of the elderly and sick, managing the crops and protecting the land from any kind of vermin that tried to make off with a quick meal. Luis had taught him some Spanish but it was so rusty you'd get tetanus from it, he only knew a few words such as how to greet someone. One day as he is walking through the town he see's a pick-up truck coming from the west in the direction of the town, thankfully John and Luis were nearby and saw it too. "There's our boss, he's a little more difficult to get along with, but not if you do what he says" Luis said in the same cheery manner he was known for, the truck drives past them and towards the trio's house. "Come, he'll want to meet you". John chimed in. The trio walk to where the vehicle was parked, it was so covered in dirt and mud it was impossible to tell the make or model, they heard a man from the large house across from the car and they came inside. It was furnished like it was a type of town hall, where the mayor worked and where meetings were held, they followed the man to the third floor to the door labeled "Mayor" and walked in. They see a man in the big office chair looking down at a newspaper presumably where the mayor would be enjoying his morning coffee, the escort walked up to the man leaned down and whispered in his ear and the man in the chair looked up, the man sitting down was the man Thoma's captors were talking about, David Randolph. 

David got up from his office chair and cleared his throat. "John, Lou, nice to see you both again how did the r-" he said in a calm and friendly manner before he stopped mid-sentence and saw Thomas behind John. "Well it looks like it went spectacularly" David finished walking towards Thomas until he was almost directly in his face. He was trying to keep a cool figure but on the inside he was scared, he read and saw on the news what kind of man David was and now just being right next to him made him want to vomit out of fear. "So tell me Mr uhh Rutherford, I'm told that the gentlemen you were riding with before were attempting to find me. Tell me, did they say anything about a plan b?" David said getting close to Thomas's face, he shook his head no. "Really? Hm, interesting" David says before unholstering his pistol and whipping him in the back of the head with the handle causing him to fall on one knee, at that moment John, Luis, and the unknown escort took Thomas and slammed him down on the mayor's desk pinning his arms and legs struggling was useless, he looked up and saw David unsheathing a combat knife out of a holster near his leg. "I bet you don't even know what they did to you while you were out don't you? That's alright, we can fix anything right fellas?" he said in a calm voice, so calm the hairs on the back of your neck and arms would stand up. As he finished his sentence he went around the desk to where Thomas's arm was being pinned down, he started to squirm and John covered his mouth with his free hand. 

David begin's to slowly inch closer with the knife, eventually the knife penetrates his skin, and David begins to wiggle the tip of the knife around the inside of the arm. Thomas is silent now, tears beginning to be visibly noticeable, he always had a low pain tolerance so this felt as bad as it looked. Eventually David's knife stopped and he asked for pliers, which Luis handed him, soon after he stopped and took out a electronic device no bigger than two grains of rice stuck together, it was emulating a small beeping noise. "Son of a bitch" he said as he dropped the device on the ground and crushed it with his boot, no sooner as he did that he heard several car's drive through the town and a barrage of gunfire followed. He looked out the window and saw the unknown soldier's who had taken Thomas prisoner had followed them into the town. "There here, John get everyone who's willing to fight a gun and get out there, and no kids the rest of you follow me" David said as Luis, the bodyguard and Thomas follow him to the basement of the town hall. David led them to a room where he turned on the light switch revealing a make-shift armory for the militiamen, "Everyone get a weapon, armor, and a sidearm this place wasn't build to withstand a siege."


	4. Chapter 4

David, Lou, and the guard all began walking towards the gun racks and selecting their weapons of choice, they notice Thomas looking around anxiously, he didn't even move an inch. "You do realize everybody means you too right?" The guard said to him, suddenly they heard gunshots coming from upstairs, the mercenaries were inside and it was only a matter of time before they found the armory. Taking the hint Thomas quickly took a vest and weapons of his choosing, "Be honest, what happens if they get down here?" David said to Louis, "If they get down here they'll take everything, we gotta blow it" he replied. He muttered something under his breath and bend down and pulled out a black duffel back, before Thomas could see what it was he was shoved out by Lou, "Get those legs moving kid, I know a way out" he said as they ran side by side. Down the hallway they reach a door with the sign "EXIT" above it and open it leading to the back of the building, from there the sounds of screaming and gunfire were audible for what they imagined would be for miles. They get ready to shut the door behind them when David and the guard rush out, "Ain't getting rid of me that easily are ya?" David said out of breath. 

Louis presses his back against the wall and peeks his head out, bodies and bullet casings riddled the streets. "It's no good, going out to the street is suicide and we can't stay here", David ran his hand through his hair with frustration mumbling to himself again "Alright I have an idea, see those trucks out there?" He pointed at an area he and his gang designated as a car lot, in it only a few cars were still in the lot, the rest would have been used to evacuate people out, or defend the town. "If we can get to those cars we can get out of here, we were able to reinforce some of 'em before today, there's a cave that we use as a meetup spot, let's go" he say's as they slowly get up and begin to slowly walk across the street, observing the battleground and anticipating enemy movement when suddenly a gunshot rings out and a hole appear's next to Thomas's leg and he is tackled by Luis to the ground. A group of voices start's shouting in the direction of the shot and it's apparent they're on their way, "Hey, you still got the bag?" David whisper's "Yeah boss" the guard replies and hands him the black duffel, he rummages through it for a while and holds out a detonator for something. "I'd cover your ears if I were you" David says as he lifts the red handle and flicks the tiny switch with his thumb. 

Meanwhile the town hall the mercenaries are sweeping going from room to room, only to come up empty handed, one of them get's the other's attention and leads them down to the basement. They find the room to the armory but it's been chained closed, the main mercenary order's another to get bolt cutter's from the back of an armored vehicle, it only takes a few seconds before he comes back with cutter's in hand, as he take's off the chains they kick open the door and find a cornucopia of weaponry. One of the guards upstairs on the ground floor is walking around taking in the view of the carnage from the windows when he hear's the same gunshot ring out. He look's through the dirty windows and see's four stranger's huddled together, one of which is holding something in his hand, as the merc wipes away the grime and dust from the window glass he see's what one of them is holding. It's a detonator, his eyes widen as he rushes as fast as he can downstairs to warn the other's, as the other mercs are preparing to load the weapons off the rack's they see small red light's light up suddenly all around them.


	5. Chapter 5

Suddenly the town hall explodes in a fiery inferno of debris and smoke followed by more back to back explosions, pieces of what's left are shot out all around wood, glass, body part's if it was in the hall it's everywhere now. What's left of the building is catching on fire at a rapid rate and collapsing, the four knew that this was their chance to make it to the lot and after a few seconds of shaking off the debris they run like a bat out of hell. They make it to the trucks and Luis and the guard begin to hot wire the vehicles. "Damn it no keys, watch our back's were gonna try to hot wire these fucking things" the guard shouts as he opens the driver side door and begins to crawl in, "Alright little man time to prove your worth, take cover!" David shout's to Thomas as he dives behind one of the wrecked reinforced cars, he then takes off the strap to his gun off his shoulder and aim's it in the direction of the shouting. After a few seconds of hesitation Thomas did the same, taking cover behind another car that was scrapped for parts. Within a few second's the merc's walk out into the line of fire and David fire's the first shot's followed by Thomas which kill's the four that were wandering out in the open. "I have an idea, hold tight!" Luis shout's as he get's out of the car and begin's to run into a building behind the lot, at first David didn't get the idea until he remembered several  day's ago.  

David was taking a midnight stroll around the small town, during his walk he could see a vast ocean of stars, and during his stargazing he bumps into a parked car that was going to be scrapped for a proposal to begin reinforcing the vehicles. And then it occurred to him, anybody could just walk through this area, none of his people were stationed near this part of the town, so he ordered that the small abandoned building behind the lot, already overrun with scorpions to be a sentry post of sorts, it also had the purpose of storing his personal trophies he obtained from his work as a criminal, one of which he "borrowed" from a cartel that operated near the border, an M79 grenade launcher. The assault has no end in sight, as if the mercenaries brought every single person to this town. _Click_ _click_ Thomas's rifle exclaimed and his handgun did the same, he was out of bullets. He looked over to David and he was the same way, they both pressed their backs against their cover spots as several soldiers slowly cross the street. David, out of option's look's around for any sign of Luis, and like a genie in a bottle his wish came true when he notices him in one of the broken window's hiding. He look's down at David and he see's his hand begin to count down, five, four, three, two, one, but before he gives the signal to fire he keep's his hand open albeit very slightly. One of the merc's notices the top of Thoma's head stick out of cover he begins to lift his weapon and with that David clenches his fist and Luis pull's the trigger. 

The explosion was powerful, sending the soldier's on their backs, and they were dead before they hit the ground. Luis set's the launcher down and begins to climb out the window and jumps down on top of one of the car's. "About fucking time, the hell took so long?" David asked him both pissed and exhausted, but before he could reply they heard a groan from the sprawl of bodies, one of the merc's was still alive. They rush over to the source of the sounds, the injuries were rough but he'd survive, some of his clothes and armor was burned and part of the mask covering his face was torn. Feeling no sympathy for the man David turned round and got to work hot wiring the car Luis ditched earlier. Thomas however grabbed the now unconscious man by the legs, and dragged him inside the building, and left a first aid kit hanging up in the back room next to him. He hear's two car engines turn on and rev to life and runs back outside, Luis and Thomas in one car, and David and the guard in the other. Without a second thought both cars shifted into gear and floored the gas out of the town into the barren desert. 


	6. Chapter 6

_Us-Mexico border, two week's later (12:45 am)_  

David and Thomas get out of their respective car's and see they've arrived at their destination, the U.S. border, the guard who they came to learn was named Matt, and Luis killed their engines and joined the two outside. "Ok, we got enough money for a decent meal, and two fake ID's, you sure you guys can take care of yourselve's?" Luis asked, after their escape David mentioned going back to America for information about the mercenaries who attacked them two week's ago. "Yeah, I've got a guy who'll take us the rest of the way, take care of yourself old man" he replied and embraced Matt and Luis and began to walk with Thomas to look for a place to hide. During their walk through the desert they asked many question's about each other, what their story was, where they've been, why they were here in the first place, overtime they formed a sort of friendship. Finally they came upon a small town in Texas where much to David's enjoyment a man was indeed waiting for them to take them to their destination, Colorado. As they are driving state by state they notice something, with each new town they pass through they see the same mercenary outfit that a kidnapped Thomas and tried to kill David. They ask the driver to turn on the radio and tune in to the local news and the man obliged, at first came the usual static of changing station's and then the message became only a little scrambled, but the message was as clear as day. 

"... _-_ _ince_ _last month more report's are coming in that the private military company, Jackals have been mobilizing effort's in order to apprehend wanted criminal David Randolph, who's been on the run for the law since last May, official spokesman for the Jackals has stated that he will not give up until quote, "The devil in disguise" has been taken off the street's and sent somewhere where he can do no more harm. Randolph has been hunted by the F.B.I. for his possible connection's with the_ _gunmen_ _,_ _…_ _who took the lives of_ _sevent_ _-..."_ That was all the radio could play before they went out of range of the local broadcast. 


	7. Chapter 7

After days of being in the confining car, they had finally arrived in Colorado. They admired the view from the windows, it was beautiful, the animals, the lush amount of tree's. A few short hours after arriving the driver takes a left off the road and onto a dirt path that was obscured by fallen branches, the car stop's and they have made it to David's safe house, a log cabin. After stretching their legs outside the car the driver handed David the keys to the cabin, and without saying a word got back in the vehicle and slowly drove away and back onto the road, and he was out of sight. Inside the cabin were the usual commodities, television, and working plumbing, it wasn't what they two of them had in mind for their first hideout since getting back into the country but it would have to do. 

A week passes after the two began to hide in a remote cabin in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere, with the only exception being the small town up the road. David, due to being a wanted criminal had to stay put in the cabin while Thomas had to get all the supplies they needed, they weren't sure what to do next. They could stay in this small town, nobody knew who Thomas was and the locals didn't seem the type to snoop in someone's home so they wouldn't see David, on the other hand however they really didn't want to spend the rest of their lives hiding inside a cabin that looked like the cover of a magazine from the 1970's. The both of them argued over their respective cases for staying or leaving, however both arguments were shut down when they heard the familiar sound of military vehicles driving towards the town, they looked outside the windows and saw the same individuals who were after them to begin with but what were they doing in this town, did they already find them?


	8. Chapter 8

David and Thomas snuck out of their cabin and followed the hill down to a large rock close to the town and crouched down. "What do you see?" Asked Thomas and David replied, "I count six or seven armored trucks, definitely the same one's back in Mexico", as he finished talking he heard leaf's rustling nearby and grabbed Thomas by the top of his head and forced him down to the ground. David began to slowly sneak around to where the sound was coming from until he was out of sight. Thomas stuck his head out and tried to look for him up in the tree line, until he heard a tree limb snap underneath him, "Don't move" the voice whispered. Thomas was as still as a statue, he had no idea how this unknown assailant had gotten behind them both. Before he could say or do anything he heard struggling behind him and he quickly turned around, it was David, he was wrestling with the mystery soldier. The fight only lasted for a few seconds before the soldier was knocked to the ground and his gun stolen, the man held up his hands in surrender and Thomas removed his balaclava, he recognized him immediately, it was the soldier Thomas saved weeks ago in Mexico. 

"Who are you, how did you find us?" David demanded rifle still pointed at the survivor's chest waiting for an excuse to pull the trigger, "I asked you a question, how did you find us" he demanded again. "Wait a second just relax ok, I'm just a defector I want nothing to do with them" the man said, he was scared maybe he really did want away from the Jackals. "Whoa wait a second, you’re the guy from Mexico, the one I dragged into the building" Thomas finally spoke, surprised the man survived his injuries let alone track them this far, "I thought I recognized you from before, look I get it, I've seen the light or whatever you want to call it, those guys are crazy. They've been looking for you both for weeks, turning whole towns upside down in the process, they shot a kid for god's sake just because she pissed them off please you have to believe me!". Thomas and David looked at each other for a moment, they weren't sure what to make of this guy, was he lying or was all that really true that these people were doing all those things just to find them. "Alright we'll play ball, although now we have to leave asap before your former colleagues catch up, but if you try to set us up so help me God I will chain you to a tree and leave you for the bears, understand?" David spoke with intensity and fury, probably the reason why people were so scared of him, the man nodded . "I know a place where you can hide, there's an old mine not very far away from here, it's old but it can shelter you until they leave", somehow the two were convinced, they still had their suspicions of this man but he didn't look the type to run away, or even better try to kill them in their sleep. "Alright, take us there" David spoke and lifted up the man only to push him forward, gun trained on his back, "Sure sure no problem, my names Raymond by the way, Alexander Raymond".


	9. Chapter 9

Their new part member Raymond miscalculated the amount of time it would take to reach the abandoned mine he talked about, about an hour off his "not very far away from here" statement. Never the less they followed closely behind him, crouching whenever they suspected they were being followed, "That's it over there, see the rock that look's like an arch?" Raymond said as he pointed up the hill , "That's how you know your close, come one". They approached slowly, eventually passing the arched rock and some kind of fecal matter, they walked up the whole way and they saw exactly what Raymond promised, a giant hole in the side of a mountain with sign's that said "NO TRESPASSING". They were definitely in the right place, they sped up the walking pace into the mine, unfortunately the electrical systems didn't seem to work so for the most part they were almost in pitch black, save for the road flares Raymond had on his person but even then it still didn't improve their situation by that much. "We shouldn't go too far in, I read somewhere miner's stopped working here after this big cave-in in the 90's" he said as they walked which didn't give any of them any confidence in the structural integrity of their temporary shelter. They stopped walking and set up a small area to sleep, granted the only thing that came close to a pillow was the loose rocks around so they opted to sleep on the cold concrete, as they were setting up their area they heard a voice behind them, "Hello there". 

David was the first one to turn around, in a swift 180 degree motion he got up and aimed the gun in the general direction of the voice, suddenly a faint lantern became visible and was approaching them in a calmly manor. "Can I help you three with something, you look exhausted" the figure asked before holding the lantern closer to their face. The figure was a woman, she was wearing a long robe that went to the floor, it's color was a beautiful crimson red and It's material looked as if it was made with something such as sheep's wool. "Were looking for a place to hide from somebody" Thomas replied, "If shelter is what you seek, then I can show you to our inner sanctum, you will be safe there" the woman replied, her words were as calming as a mother's lullaby, or like a siren leading unfortunate sailors to their death. The three of them looked at the other, each wondering if whether or not to trust this stranger, anything beat hiding in the dark like a bat. Eventually the tree agreed and followed close behind the woman in red.


	10. Chapter 10

As they walked further down the seemingly endless halls of abandoned forklifts and hard hats the noticed medium sized lanterns hung up above their heads, it seemed the farther they went the more lit the way. The woman, true to her word escorted them to a railing that overlooked the main excavation area of the mine, lights as high as the ceiling, chatter from below, even the smell of fresh food lingered in the air. "This is the inner sanctum, it is where we lay our heads and where we go to pray" the woman said tenderly, she had no pain or any indication that she was being held against her will in her tone or body language. "Come, pastor Joseph will wish to speak with you three, he enjoys the company of outsiders" she said as she continued, once they reached the ground floor they followed each other closely so as not to loose each other in the seemingly never-ending crowd of people. They were all wearing pretty much the same as the woman, some wore the color black and one a sea foam green, they all just watched with curiosity at the three strangers that had just entered. Finally they managed to wade through the people and arrive at the destination of Pastor Joseph, their tour guide tapped an elderly man on the shoulder and he turned around. "Oh what's this, more lives to save?" The elderly man said in a calming voice. "I'm Pastor Joseph, and this is my church, sure it's not a very comfy place of worship but an altar's an altar" he said in a upbeat tone. The three looked at each other for a moment and wondered, "Can these people be trusted, they seem nice but then again so did Manson and look how that turned out" they agreed among st themselves that they would only stay in this cave only for a night. 

The pastor seemed overjoyed that not only did a new face stumble into his home, but they also wished to stay the night, Joseph was a man of God of course, but it sometimes got boring seeing the same tired faces day in and day out. The congregation showed the trio to where everybody slept, unsurprisingly it was the hard ground, the trio didn't really feel like complaining so they just unwrapped their old raggedy blankets their host's gave them and just sucked it up and closed their eyes and tried not to let the sound of twenty plus people snoring as loud as a chainsaw keep them awake. Thomas had a dream that night, he was sitting in a small rowboat calmly moving the oars forward and backward. It was somewhere in the early morning he figured, roughly around 6:13 he'd guess, the sound of birds were scarce with only a few making any noise at all. He didn't know where he was going but something compelled him to keep going, Thomas looked around at his surroundings, rows of tree's as far as the eye could see to his left, a small island it seemed. Before he could finish looking around at the almost quiet and empty surroundings he heard something hard hit the end of his small boat, he turned to see what it was and saw the problem, a good sized piece of driftwood smacked against his boat which thankfully didn't hurt the boat very bad, just a small dent near the front. 

As he pushed the wood away with one of his oar's he saw something faint standing on top of the water, it was too far away to tell but it looked like a human, it was walking towards him calmly, just stepping on water like it was weightless. Thomas wasn't sure what to think or what to do, before he could figure either of those things out he noticed the figure contort his upper body to different positions all while still standing, suddenly it began to move faster towards the boat, it's calm walking changed to violent twitching and blood curdling screaming as it got closer and closer. It got to Thomas boat and stepped in, as it got in the screaming stopped and it just stared at him, twitching in place as it gave no emotion, it remained standing towering over him saying or screaming absolutely nothing. Thomas didn't know how to react at all, he was too horrified to move his body, as the figure continued to stare at him Thomas noticed similar figures in the water around him, some appearing from the tree line, they all calmly walked closer, their screams heard in the distance as they approached, mutilated twitching body's violently screaming as the got closer and closer to his location, closer, closer, closer, Thomas held his hands to his ears and closed his eyes to try to block out the horrid screaming when all of a sudden, it all stopped. Thomas looked up and saw the entities themselves and the noise they made were all gone, it was only him in the boat, he looked around to the left, the right, behind him, and in front and there was only him. He breathed a sigh of relief and began to pick up one of his oars that must have fell off the boat, thankfully it was floating right next to the side in the water. He reached in the cold water and lifted it out and lifted it out of the water back in when he saw a pair of dark legs in front of him followed by raspy breathing, he looked up and the creature let out the most unholy scream in his face. "THOMAS" the voice sounded familiar, kind of sounded like... Raymond?


	11. Chapter 11

"Thomas! Wake the fuck up dude!" The familiar voice sprung Thomas out of his nightmare and his eyes shot wide open only to find Raymond kneeling in front of him. The surrounding noises were hard to catch up, he thought he could hear rumbling but the harder he tried to focus his head pounded with pain. He looked around his surroundings, he wasn’t on the floor in the inner sanctum anymore. It looked like a large concrete corridor of some kind but he wasn't sure, he then heard Raymond's voice again. "Oh thank god, we thought we'd lost you when the rocks fell", Thomas lifted his hand towards his temple and felt the material of a bandage wrapped completely over the top of his head. He looked around once more, David was nowhere to be found, "Where's David?" He said in a sore voice but Raymond didn't respond right away. "Raymond where's David!" He demanded as he tried to reach for Raymond's vest but he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder and he was lightly pushed back against the wall, "There's a tunnel we can use to get out grab him and follow me", Thomas was lifted up by Ray, thankfully his injury wasn't severe enough that he wasn't able to run. 

Ray and Thomas followed the stranger through hallways of concrete, all around them the cave echoed in gunshots and shouting. Eventually the three came upon a sort of observation room that the work foreman would sit to work out blueprints and whatnot, through the dirty glass they noticed four people behind cover shooting at an opposing group. Cleaning the glass they realized that it was the same group hunting them from the very beginning of their journey, the Jackals. "We have to go down there, we have to help them" the stranger said out of desperation, hoping that the two would help him protect the man's people, without hesitation Raymond and Thomas nodded their heads in agreement, Ray handed him a sidearm and the three began to provide fire support from the room above the action. The Jackals were blindsided, within a few seconds four of them were dead and the rest retreating from their position back into the endless cave. The three descended from the observation room and began to walk towards the group of survivors when they realized that one of them was David, his clothes had small splatters of blood on them. "Well hot damn, you got here in the nick of t-" he was interrupted by the sudden embrace Thomas had gave him. Realizing what he did Thomas instantly retracted back and a awkward silence filled the room, "Anyway, there's an exit route just down that way" David continued to speak trying not to wrap his head around the sudden hug. Thomas nodded his head and started to look back up when he saw a dark figure using the wall of the cave to help him move, in his hand was an pistol and on the figures clothes was the name, Jackals. The enemy lifted his arm and aimed his gun directly at David's back, one well placed shot and it'd go right through his heart. "NO" Thomas yelled as he quickly pushed David back with his shoulder stealing his gun out of the holster and aimed it at the attacker.


	12. Chapter 12

The echo of the two guns going off filled the cave almost instantly, the sound of the bullet casing jumping out of the chamber and eventually meeting the cold ground filled the ears off every single soul in the immediate vicinity, the faint smell of gunpowder penetrated the air mixing in with the sulfur and rust from the mine's atmosphere. It happened faster than anybody could react, David didn't know what happened yet, in fact all he knew was that he was pushed and then he felt Thomas fall into his arms almost lifeless. Everything started to come together, he looked forward and saw a dead figure slouched against the wall, and the friend who took the bullet that was supposed to be for him. Still he could hear the two gunshots ringing in his ears, loud as a crescendo it's echo lingered in the cave, like death itself was taunting them over their inability to fully witness his greatest piece yet. David snapped back as he looked at Thomas's body, he laid him down on the ground and checked him for where the bullet went. As he patted him down he felt a spot wet with fresh blood near the abdomen, he lifted up the shirt and saw it, an exit wound through his back, he was fading fast. David without thinking what to do next picked up Thomas and ran as best as he could past the now deceased gunman and found an old service elevator to the surface. Constantly through the entire ride up he kept pressing the up button on the panel in the deluded hope that it would get him up faster, he looked at Thomas who he'd placed in the corner of the elevator. He was breathing but it all came out in the form of pathetic wheezes and the occasional cough of blood on the metal floor, Raymond was tending to him but there was hardly anything he could do without proper medical attention or equipment. 

Finally the elevator dinged and sunlight assaulted David's eye's but he didn't care. Powering through the temporary blindness he picked up Thomas once more despite the protest by Raymond, David blocked it out though, and he did the same with everything else around him. The birds, the tree branches rustling in the winds, all that he chose to hear was his own breathing and heartbeat. He and Raymond ran towards the forest not paying attention to the explosion behind then followed by the enormous sound of the cave collapsing on itself, they didn't care all they could do now was to save Thomas. They ran for what felt like hours, going in any direction they could to get as far away from the mine as possible. David was getting desperate, he could barely hear Thomas breathing, he was afraid and ready to give up. "Go left" a voice filled David's ear's, soothing as a mother's tone when she talks to a sleeping baby, out of options he listened to the voice and saw a small wooden cabin with a lit lantern in the window. He ran without hesitation screaming for help, an old man opened the cabin door to find out what the commotion was, shotgun in hand when he saw the young man dying in the stranger's arms, the latter screaming at him to help. The old man escorted them in and him and Raymond made some room on the old man's kitchen table, David laid him down and took several steps back the noises in the room coming in and out of focus. Eventually he walked out of the room and into the man's living room running his hands through his dirty hair as he paced back and fourth. Hours had passed, David had been glued to the old couch the entire time rubbing his hands together while they shook trying not to think of the worst.


	13. Chapter 13

Several Weeks Earlier   
"Hey uh, your name's David right?" Thomas asked, it'd had only been just two hours they had been walking together in the desert. It was an awkward two hours, with neither of them really trying to stimulate conversation."Look man I know you’re kinda confused right now given the circumstances, but could you cut the twenty questions please" David said in an annoyed manor, "I figured you know, since I'm stuck with you why don't we get to know each other" he continued sheepishly as David continued to look around the barren landscape obviously trying to ignore the man next to him, until eventually seeing as how there was nothing to interact with other than and small reptiles. "Fine I'll play ball, why don't you start us off chief, what do you do for a living" he replied in a sarcastic tone of voice, it was obvious that even if he got an answer he couldn't be bothered to remember. "I'm a photojournalist, sometimes I do small stuff like the election and even big stuff like the Ebola outbreak years ago", "No shit?" David turn to his right and chimed, and Thomas nodded. "That's right, a crew and I were around Sierra Leone when it happened, taking pictures of the locals and their living conditions when news broke out, next thing we know were in being examined in a medical tent. As we were cleared we saw glimpses of the sick coming in and coming out in body bags, women were crying and clutching each other". Thomas looked shaken and trying to keep his composure but what he'd seen really burned itself into his mind, "We managed to take a few pictures of the people, medical tents, and even one or two of the doctor, some of our pictures got around the internet and some magazines." David whistled, "Damn dude, I remember watching something about that on the television in jail, scared the piss out of a few inmates in my cell block". 

Thomas wasn't very surprised, David made quite a name for himself in the news cycle for a while now, by a year after his first stint in prison, he got so well known he made it to the F.B.I's Most Wanted List for crying out loud, but his journalistic curiosity just couldn't let it go. "How did you end up a fugitive, I mean how did this start?" Thomas asked, David didn't say anything. An hour after walking some more David stopped and turned around, "We can set up camp here, Don't worry about firewood" he said before taking the machete out of the sheath and began walking towards a tree and began hacking away. As he did that Thomas looked around and saw something dark peek over a sand dune, when he shook his head and looked again nothing was there. He was about to walk over and look when David came back with the needed wood to make a substantial fire, they sat across each other as the embers crackled like a whip, neither of them saying much of anything. "I kidnapped the mayor of California" David said abruptly, Thomas looked up confused wondering why he said it, "You wanted to know how I got my start right? I kidnapped a mayor. I was pretty young back then, a ripe ol' twenty two. I had some bad influences growing up, ran with the wrong people, did some bad stuff, and that's how I started my life of crime" he finished jokingly. Thomas wanted to laugh but instead a yawn came out instead, "Get some rest we gotta start moving again around the crack of Dawn" David said as he stood up. "I'll stay up and keep watch", deciding to not argue with a convicted felon Thomas rolled over on his side and closed his eyes.


	14. Chapter 14

"David, Hey David" a voice echoed into focus in David's head as he opened his eyes, it was Raymond looking down at him. "About time, I was worried I had to carry you again, get up the old guy want's to talk" he said as he walked away from the couch, David looked around, he must have fell asleep on the couch, his hands were almost clean with Thomas' blood. He slowly got up and walked to where he thought the kitchen would be, his intuition was right when he saw Raymond and the old man sitting next to each other at the table. "Oh good your awake, I was concerned I'd have to pour ice water on your face" the old man said tenderly, his hands wrapped around a coffee mug. "Your friend will be alright, the bullet didn't hit anything major but he's gonna have to take it easy for a week or so, he's upstairs resting if you'd like to see him." The old man said before taking another sip of his coffee, David walked up the stairs and opened the first door he saw in the hallway, it was there that he saw Thomas trying to put on another shirt from the closet when he turned around and saw David standing there in the doorway. "Hey man good news, I'm not dead!" He chuckled as David just stood there processing that the man who had been bleeding in his arms was still alive. Without saying a word David walked up to Thomas and embraced him, only letting go when he let out a winced pain, "Yeah good to see you too man, Jesus your stronger than you look" he joked before lightly punching David in the arm. "Hey guys, come down here, the old man want's a word" Raymond said at the base of the stairs. 

The two of them came down the stairs and saw the old man and Raymond sitting in chairs across from each other in the living room, they took their seats in the two leftover chairs. "Now let me make this absolutely clear, I took you in because I saw that man dying in your arms and I couldn't in good conscious turn you three away, but now that he's in stable condition, you need to leave now." The old man said sternly, preferring not to have any more people in his home, "I know a National Park that’s not far from here, you can find someone to help you there but by tomorrow afternoon I want you out of my house" he finished. Already the tree began to argue with the man, trying to explain the circumstances of their situation and who gave Thomas the injury, but the old man didn't want to hear it, he threatened to reduce their stay at his home to a few hours. As the old man began to get up off his worn out couch something caught Raymond's eye, he looked into the furnace and grabbed a glass of water on the coffee table and threw the cold water on the flame, practically extinguishing it. He grabbed inside and pulled out a type of fabric, it felt like sheep wool and despite the darkened color from the burning, it appeared to be a crimson red color. "What are you-" before the old man could finish his sentence he realized what Raymond had did, "Guys, this is the same outfit of the guys from the mine" Raymond said as he showed Thomas and David. Without reason David unholstered his gun and aimed it directly at the old man's forehead, "Woah woah David, the hell are you doing", "David what the hell!" Thomas and Raymond said in almost perfect unison. Where'd you get that robe huh, you working for those assholes that attacked us, huh?" David said as he flicked the safety off on his gun and put his finger on the trigger.


	15. Chapter 15

The old man had his hand up, but did not beg for David to put the gun away, in fact he had the same blank expression on his face as before. "Put the gun down son, and I'll explain everything" he said as calmly as he could given the circumstances, thankfully Thomas and Raymond agreed with the statement and they both took the gun out of his hands. "Thank you, now I'll hold up my end of the deal" the old man said as he sat back down on the couch. "I guess if you recognize the color and fabric then you would already known about my brothers and sisters. It was years ago when I joined them, I was a young man back then. I had just gotten back from Vietnam, not even a high school graduate and I was on my way to a land I'd never heard of before when I met their former leader, Samuel. He was a kind man, got me my first job as a small time mechanic, I didn’t know what he really wanted from me until a few years later. He came to me saying that he had learned a new way of seeing the world around us, kind of like a Buddhist way of thinking. The problem with that time was that around that time was when the real nutcases started coming out of the wetwork. Jones, Manson, If you had an idea people were prepared to drop everything to follow you. 

For some reason I took him up on his offer to make me a member, he was my sponsor. He taught me all these different thing such as alchemy, and witchcraft, when I asked him what this had to do with his philosophy of the new way of thinking he never told me, "All in good time Michael, it's too early to reveal it to you". Eventually I did find out what he was hiding from me, his new way of life was making deals for things such as power, wealth, and everlasting life. Unfortunately it wasn't the kind of deal you make in some high-rise building in New York, instead of money all you had to offer was your soul and the worst part of the entire deal, a human sacrifice." The trio were taken back at what he had said, a human sacrifice? Did they hear that correctly? The old man continued, "Fast forward about nine years later, I was of a higher rank then but not by a whole lot. Michael summoned me and drove me to this mountain where he said he'd make a case that I had potential to become more than an what I was." The trio continued to stand there just staring at the old man trying to process all this information, if this man is telling the truth then the cult they had encountered in the cave was over seventy years old, possibly even older. "He took me further in the cave where his superiors were looking down at this bound and shirtless man lying there on a concrete slab on the floor. They walked with me down to where the man was and immediately I felt the room get colder, like there was something else in the room with us. It was then a man walked out of the shadows to greet us, Samuel and his superiors kneel before the stranger as he was a king of an unknown land. The stranger immediately walked to me as I didn’t realized I too was supposed to kneel, it felt his eyes were staring directly into my soul."


	16. Chapter 16

Before the old man continued he wiped his eyes and took a deep breath, it was clear that the encounter left him shaken. "May I have some water please?" He asked, Raymond went into his kitchen, poured him a glass and handed to him. The old man drank the entire glass as if it were a shot glass full of alcohol, "Thank you" he said before continuing, "Later on as they surrounded the man that was bound they were chanting something in Latin, I'd be lying if I said I understood perfectly what they were saying. And then they gave me this oddly shaped knife and told me to plunge it deep into the man's sternum. I didn't want to do it, I had killed enough people in the war to haunt me for the rest of my life, the stranger I guess felt my unwillingness and came up to me and whispered something into my ear." The old man stopped and put his face into his hands, trying his hardest not to cry as he retold the story. "What happened next?" Thomas said as if he was a nervous child hiding behind his mother on his first day of school. "I don't know" the old man in a shaken voice as he began to cry, "The last thing I remember was him whispering and then everything went dark, it felt like I had blacked out. The next thing you know I open my eyes and I snap back to reality and I see Samuel and the other chanting Latin phrases at the top of their lungs" The old man began to break down crying again, Raymond walked to the couch and sat next to the man, trying to comfort him as best as he could. "It's ok if you don't want to tell us more, I know this is a subject that's hard to talk about it" he said in a tender voice, like a young adult would say to their elderly and dying parent who laid on their deathbed. The old man was able to compose himself and continued on. 

"When I saw them all chanting and raving like that, I looked down and I noticed what I had done. I killed him, that helpless man who didn't ask for what we had done. He was just lying there eyes and mouth wide open, my hands were covered in his blood." The old man concluded before again shaking in his seat as Raymond patter his back, offering him a box of tissues that was on the coffee table, "When I had realized what I had done, I couldn't stay there anymore, so I ran away and kept the uniform to remind myself everyday of what I had done. Then Raymond here told me about where y'all came from and I couldn't bear with the guilt anymore, so I threw it in the furnace to burn, and that’s when you found the robe." The trio looked at each other, this cult was dangerous beyond a reasonable doubt, if they'd had stayed any longer there's no telling what sort of evil they would have done to them if the Jackals hadn't attacked. "Well, seeing as how I've just spilled everything I know, I was wondering if you three would help me with something" the old man said as he was drying his tears. The three looked at him, what exactly did this old man need from them, it seemed like he was doing just fine for himself being out here all by himself. "I assume y'all have heard of the bunker in the Cheyenne Mountains?", "Yeah it's that military complex that’s supposed to be used in case of a nuclear attack" Thomas said almost immediately as David looked back in surprise, "What, everybody knows that" he added. "That's right, but recently it's had, other inhabitants.


	17. Chapter 17

"Wait a minute, you want us to do what? David said in disbelief at the proposed plan by the old man. "I know it sounds like a damn stupid idea, but these "Jackals" are more dangerous than you think. Where'd you think they got all the money they needed to have all that gear you've told me about?" At first they didn't know what he meant, but then they remembered how the old man said that the people in his Samuel's cult had tried to make a deal with an unknown entity in return for things like money and power. The revelation must have been obvious in their faces because the old man got up from his couch, "Exactly, these people need to be stopped or else who knows what they could deal for next time, favors from the government, a weapon of mass destruction, we can't take that chance". David couldn't believe what the hell the old man was thinking, sneaking into a military complex to stop people who may or may not have supernatural forces at their disposal. The old man waved his hand for them to follow them and they obeyed. They came upon an old shed behind the house, the old man unlocked the padlock and escorted them in before pulling the cord in the ceiling to the light bulb. It felt even smaller on the inside and a lot more better smelling than it looked, they looked around and saw on the two tables across from each other was the gear the trio had on them when they left the mine. "I'm not as good with my hands as I used to be, but give me a few minutes and I'll field strip anything you throw at me" the man said confidently, so much so that David let out a chuckle, all of them grabbed their respective gear and were getting ready to leave when the old man gave them the other part of the plan, that he would come along too. 

"Look sir, you've been a huge help for us and for that I sincerely thank you, but your too old to get involved in this, I don't want yo have to worry about someone else" David said trying not to involve the old man into anymore of their problems, but just like before the old man refused to sit on the sidelines, and without a moments hesitation he went back into his house and came back with a piece of paper in his hand. The handwriting was sloppy buy mostly legible, albeit written in Latin. "Before I ran away from them I forgot about this paper in my pocket, it's a sort of teleportation spell. All you have to do is say the incantation and have the destination to where you want to go clear in your mind, otherwise well, you could end up somewhere not as pleasant." One by one they took turns as one of them recited the incantation as best as they could before disappearing into a brief cloud of purple smoke. By now everyone was already on their way to the mountains, except Thomas who opted to do his turn at the very end of the line. He was nervous, the very notion that he'd be in place and then another in the blink of an eye astounded him, so much so that he started getting cold feet. "I can do this, I can do this, it's just a little magic" he said over and over in an attempt to calm his nerves. Thankfully he was able to regain his composure and began to recite the words on the paper, and within an instant, he was gone.


	18. Chapter 18

Thomas felt his body lurch forward as he reached his destination, the Cheyenne Mountains. The others were waiting for him farther up by the large tunnel that led to the entrance, "There you are, was starting to wonder if you thought of the right place" the old man chuckled as Thomas caught up to them. As they began to walk into the tunnel they are stopped by the old man, "Oh no not that way I know another way, come on" he said as he walked toward a large patch of ivy covering one of the concrete walls. He put his hand on the wall and a panel came out, it appeared to be a retinal scanner of some kind, "IDENTITY CONFIRMED" said a robotic voice that came out of the scanner. Just then the sound of rust grinding together was heard from the ground by Raymond's feet, it was a type of secret escape hatch from the base. "Shall we go lads?" The old man said with full confidence, the three looked at each other and shrugged and climbed down the rusted over ladder down to some kind of command center. They looked at all the technology that surrounded them, it wasn't new or modern by any means, computers that looked like they belonged in a advertisement in a magazine from the 90's. The desk's looked like nobody had using them for years, possibly a decade. "This was the mountain where Samuel had taken me to do the sacrifice, but I had no idea it was this deserted" the hermit said as he took one finger and slid it across one of the desks. Just then the door leading in and out of the command center opened and they were greeted by an bipedal robot, it had the same color of red as well as the insignia of the cultist from the mine. "As I live and breathe, brother Michael! It's been too long" the machine said in a friendly manor, "It's nice to see you too B-338" the hermit said back walking towards the robot and giving it a hug. "B-113 these are friends of mine, we would like the tour of the underground please" he continued, surprisingly the robot obeyed, "Right this way everyone". 

The robot gave them the tour of the floor, by their count this was the 14th floor of the base. As they walked they looked into the rooms of lab's that had more robots running their own experiments, they weren't sure what it was but it looked to be some form of botany. "Since the humans left this facility, we took the liberty of making it our permanent home. Indulging in things such as botany, pharmaceuticals is something we know so well by now we could teach a college course on it" B-113 chuckled as it continued down the hall. Something in one of the laboratory windows caught Thomas's eye, it was a robot working on some kind of bio engineering experiment with plants. The robot didn't pay attention to him, likely programmed to not detect any kind of distraction that would prevent it from working. Suddenly the lab went dark, and not a second after so did the hallway they were walking in, suddenly a series of red lights came on in place of the normal white bulbs in the ceiling. Without warning a large steel door began to slide down a few feet from where Thomas was, David and company all turned around and saw each other before the large door slammed, preventing access to the laboratories. "Thomas, Thomas you good?" Raymond said as he pounded on the door and looking through the small rectangle of safety glass in the middle of the door. Neither of them could hear the other, all they had to go on was broken sign language, Michael got an idea and made the shape of a lightning bolt to signify the word "power" and pointed to the hallway to the left of Thomas, he gave them a thumbs up and went farther into the hallway until he wasn't visible through the glass.


	19. Chapter 19

Now there was David, Raymond, Michael the old man, and B-133 mindlessly walking down the corridors that all looked exactly the same as each other. "What the hell was that, some kind of power outage?" Raymond openly pondered as B-113 replied almost instantly, "My sensors indicate the facility underwent a power outage, likely caused by an electromagnetic pulse." David and Raymond looked at each other, "Must have been the Jackals, we need to circle back to Thomas and get the hell out of here" David said as he checked his weapons to make sure he would be ready for a fight. "There's an observatory nearby you can take shelter in, Michael pointed your friend in the direction of the main circuit breaker so you won't be there long" the robot offered. Seeing as there were not a whole lot of options as to where they could go given the outage caused a lot of areas to be locked down they took the robot on his offer. After several long hallways and the occasional loose animal used for live testing later, they walked up to a wide metal door. "It's no good. I was only allowed access to the upper floors" Michael said, trying to think of a new plan. "Allow me sir" B-113 said as he put his hands underneath the gate. Almost without no effort at all he lifted the blast door about halfway open. "Now would be a good time to get in brother Michael" the robot said with strain in his voice. The three hurried and crawled as fast as they could under the door, the robot noticing his companions were safely through go of the door and it slammed down into it's original place. The four of them looked around the area they found themselves in. The robot was correct it was an observatory of some kind, they looked and saw a long desk in the middle of the room with several computers on it. David looked around the room for any signs of life at all besides them, but turned up nothing. "It's all clear. Nothing in here but dust and dead computers, can't even get the elevator door open." 

Raymond saw the large pane of glass overlooking an unknown testing area, he tried to look inside but all he saw was darkness. "See anything in there?" Asked David, "Nah it's too dark, we won't know until Thomas manages to turn back on the main power" he replied. They looked around, which was a lot harder when the whole room was a dark red. Thankfully B-113's head came equiped with a high power spotlight which made finding things easier. Before they could inspect deep the lights reverted from the gloomy dark red to the boring white, "I'll be damned he actually found the power" David said impressed "B-113 you can tu-" he said before he was interrupted by the robot collapsing on top of him, sending him to the ground. Raymond rolled over the robot off, rolling it onto it's back before giving David a hand up. "Internal battery must have finally died, guess robots need us after all" Michael joked. Immediately after getting up David noticed that some of the lights outside of the observation room had been turned on, a dark silhouette of a long object was seen at the end of the test room. "Raymond look around see if you can find a way to get those lights down there working", Raymond looked around at the computers and monitors for anyway to work the lights when he saw a console near the far wall. He began typing into the keys for a few minutes, it seemed whatever he was doing wasn't bearing much fruit. "Raymond are you almost there?" David pondered as he started walking towards him, "Got it" Raymond replied as the whir of lights coming to life like Lazarus inside the room. David look back at the glass and saw an old altar made of what looked like mahogany, and behind it an obelisk with strange symbols etched into it. David heard a hard thump behind him as if someone hit the ground, he turned around to investigate and all he heard and felt was a cold metal bullet pierce his body.


	20. Chapter 20

Now there was David, Raymond, Michael the old man, and B-133 mindlessly walking down the corridors that all looked exactly the same as each other. "What the hell was that, some kind of power outage?" Raymond openly pondered as B-113 replied almost instantly, "My sensors indicate the facility underwent a power outage, likely caused by an electromagnetic pulse." David and Raymond looked at each other, "Must have been the Jackals, we need to circle back to Thomas and get the hell out of here" David said as he checked his weapons to make sure he would be ready for a fight. "There's an observatory nearby you can take shelter in, Michael pointed your friend in the direction of the main circuit breaker so you won't be there long" the robot offered. Seeing as there were not a whole lot of options as to where they could go given the outage caused a lot of areas to be locked down they took the robot on his offer. After several long hallways and the occasional loose animal used for live testing later, they walked up to a wide metal door. "It's no good. I was only allowed access to the upper floors" Michael said, trying to think of a new plan. "Allow me sir" B-113 said as he put his hands underneath the gate. Almost without no effort at all he lifted the blast door about halfway open. "Now would be a good time to get in brother Michael" the robot said with strain in his voice. The three hurried and crawled as fast as they could under the door, the robot noticing his companions were safely through go of the door and it slammed down into it's original place. The four of them looked around the area they found themselves in. The robot was correct it was an observatory of some kind, they looked and saw a long desk in the middle of the room with several computers on it. David looked around the room for any signs of life at all besides them, but turned up nothing. "It's all clear. Nothing in here but dust and dead computers, can't even get the elevator door open." 

Raymond saw the large pane of glass overlooking an unknown testing area, he tried to look inside but all he saw was darkness. "See anything in there?" Asked David, "Nah it's too dark, we won't know until Thomas manages to turn back on the main power" he replied. They looked around, which was a lot harder when the whole room was a dark red. Thankfully B-113's head came equipped with a high power spotlight which made finding things easier. Before they could inspect deep the lights reverted from the gloomy dark red to the boring white, "I'll be damned he actually found the power" David said impressed "B-113 you can tu-" he said before he was interrupted by the robot collapsing on top of him, sending him to the ground. Raymond rolled over the robot off, rolling it onto it's back before giving David a hand up. "Internal battery must have finally died, guess robots need us after all" Michael joked. Immediately after getting up David noticed that some of the lights outside of the observation room had been turned on, a dark silhouette of a long object was seen at the end of the test room. "Raymond look around see if you can find a way to get those lights down there working", Raymond looked around at the computers and monitors for anyway to work the lights when he saw a console near the far wall. He began typing into the keys for a few minutes, it seemed whatever he was doing wasn't bearing much fruit. "Raymond are you almost there?" David pondered as he started walking towards him, "Got it" Raymond replied as the whir of lights coming to life like Lazarus inside the room. David look back at the glass and saw an old altar made of what looked like mahogany, and behind it an obelisk with strange symbols etched into it. David heard a hard thump behind him as if someone hit the ground, he turned around to investigate and all he heard and felt was a cold metal bullet pierce his body.


	21. Chapter 21

As Thomas turned left in the direction the old man gave to him he noticed more and more of the same laboratories doing relatively the same as the ones he saw earlier. They all were working on bio engineering but the difference was there was nobody human or robot in the rooms at all, almost like this wing was abandoned. His hypothesis was correct when he saw a half opened door with a human skeleton on the floor, walking over the deceased body he noticed a sort of recreational hall, not a big one but large enough it could accommodate a sizable group. He looked through the hall, inspecting the refrigerators and their way past expire foods, the gymnasium and it's deflated and degrading basketballs, even the bathrooms and their completely molded over toilet paper. He continued to look around when he saw a small little area that was much different than the other rooms, this one had the amenities of a library. He walked down the shelves of books, given the red light it was difficult to make out what many of them were called but the titles he could read had subjects ranging from medicine to nuclear engineering, he took one of the books from the shelf but it wouldn't budge. He grabbed hold of with two hands and pulled again, suddenly the book tilted and he heard a set of clicks when the wall behind him revealed a door behind the bookshelf. He hesitated to open it, his curiosity got the better of him and he turned the knob and entered the unknown. It was an alternative hallway to a security room, by the looks of the room it was recently used, the desk and keyboard had hand and fingerprints on them, and the monitor had been wiped clean of dust. He heard a whirring noise that sounded like an old generator coming from behind a door to his right and went to investigate, when he opened the door he saw a small room with several breaker switches that were flipped down in the off position. "Ok, this must be it. Now which one is it?" Thomas murmured to himself as his hand hovered the multiple switches. "Oh screw it" he said as he individually switched each breaker in the on position, for once his impulsive decisions actually did something helpful. The biblical phrase "Let there be light" had never seemed so appropriate, the lights in the office flashed on and Thomas could hear the light's outside begin to come back. "I'll be damned he actually found the power", he heard David's voice coming from the computer and saw them on the surveillance monitor. As he looked in the monitor he saw the words, "OBSERVATION, FLOOR 15" in the bottom right of the screen, as he began to turn around and leave the room he heard a thump loud thump and then a gunshot. He turned around and saw what had happened, "Oh shit" Thomas said as he left the room and began to run as fast as he could. 

David heard a hard thump behind him as if someone hit the ground, he turned around to investigate and all he heard and felt was a cold metal bullet pierce his body. He fell against the glass and slid down when he had looked up again to see if his mind was playing tricks on him. There was no trick, this was for real. He did see Raymond point a gun at him as he turned around after knocking out the Michael, and he did see him pulling the trigger and shooting him. Raymond walked up to David and knelled down in front of him, "About time that pencil neck got the power working, I was thinking I'd have to spent more time down here with you." David put a hand on his midsection trying as hard as he could to put pressure on the wound. "You son of a bitch, how long were you fucking us over" David demanded before coughing up a little blood. "Since you found me in the forest last month. The people upstairs realized that they couldn't take you head on anymore, what with your little fireworks display in Mexico." Raymond monologue, like a villain from an old Saturday morning cartoon. David wasn't paying much attention to him instead focusing more on his attention on trying to put as much pressure as he could on his wound, Raymond noticed this and pointed his gun under David's chin and used it to lift his head up. "Don't black out yet man, your gonna miss the best part." Raymond got back up and lifted the old man over his shoulder and walked to the now powered service elevator to the right. "Oh by the way, thanks for leading us right to that cave. We've been looking for those traitors for weeks, keep an eye out the window for me. Your really not gonna wanna miss this". And with that the elevator door had closed, leaving David bleeding out on the ground, angry over letting himself be fooled so easily.


	22. Chapter 22

Thomas had ran out of the room as quick as possible stumbling over a small bookshelf and knocking it over, he needed to find a way out. He tried to retrace his steps through the enormous rec room but with the power turned back on he didn't recognize a damn thing. He then saw a map of the 14th floor on the wall next to the cafeteria section, he traced his fingers over the words "Rec Hall" and followed the line that symbolized a hallway. "Ok down this hallway and then, down this one. That must be an elevator, ok let's get going Thomas" he murmured to himself as he began to jog down the hallway he assumed coincided with the one on the map. No matter how deep he wen't into the facility the room's always have a seriously bad vibe, maybe it was the fact that a lot of them were abandoned or maybe it was the fear of not knowing if David was still alive. Thomas thought about that night in the desert, how could he forget, it was the night he was almost killed. "Thomas, Hey kid wake up" David whispered as he kicked him in the chest as he slept. Thomas stirred awake and slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw clearly was three people surrounding them both, one with a gun aimed at David and the other two armed with hunting knives nearby. "Well lookie here, I thought I saw smoke around here" one of the knife wielders said, his voice sounding like nails on a chalkboard after getting a manicure with sulfuric acid. Thomas looked at their faces the best he could, their faces looked like they had sustained severe blunt force trauma and their bodies didn't look much prettier. "Listen here boy, way I see you got a choice, your belongings or your bodies" the gunman said before crackling madly. The silence in the air was unbearable, all David could do was stare at the man threatening to kill them, or worse. "I don't hear an answer boys! Their bodies it is!" The gunman exclaimed to the other's as they pulled Thomas away from the campfire, "Oh don't you worry 'bout a thing, I'm gonna keep you as a pet" the ringleader cackled once more before being interrupted by two gunshots that rang out from Thomas's direction. 

That gave David the opening he needed and he lifted his pant leg and pulled out the hidden knife holstered on his leg, and in one quick motion cut the man's right hand causing him to drop his weapon on the ground. The man tried to reach for the gun but a bullet hit the sand near his leg, he looked up and saw Thomas pointing a gun at him, without hesitation he pulled the trigger once more, but it was out of bullets. The leader flashed a toothy smile before being shot by David who had taken the opportunity to reach for the boss man's gun, he hit the ground with only a faint wheeze out of his body. "Holy shit, that was close. You ok?" Thomas rushed to David, he looked at him for bruises of any kind not noticing David's completely mystified expression on his face. "Wow kid, maybe your not as green as I thought. How'd you get away from Tweedledee and Tweedle-dumbass?", "Photojournalism, not exactly part of the job but it helps" Thomas said as he got David back on his feet, "Look I know you've got more experience with this sort of thing than I do, but we really need to get going" he finished as he started packing up the supplies and David was not too far behind, impressed over his partner's attitude. Thomas got out of the elevator and proceeded forward, there was a sign that said "OBSERVATION" with a worn out arrow pointing to the left. Immediately he saw the door and tried to get in, like most things in this base they had to make things needlessly complicated. Thomas saw the electronic panel which had a red padlock on the screen with a five-digit pass-code needed to unlock it. "Oh you've got to be kidding me" Thomas said out loud as he pressed the numbers of the numeric pad in random orders hoping to find the correct pass-code. Just then a gust of wind hit Thomas's back followed by whisper's, when he turned around he saw nothing out of the ordinary. "beep beep" the numeric keypad announced, "What the f- you know what I'll take it" Thomas said as the door slid up into the ceiling.


	23. Chapter 23

Immediately the first thing he saw was David slouched against the glass, his head slowly turning to the doorway. Thomas rushed to him hoping that he'd made it in time, "Oh god, David can you hear me?" He asked the pale companion slouched in front of him. "T-Thomas, Raymond-" David tried to say before being interrupted by his friend, "Yeah, saw it on the monitors. Oh crap this is bad this is very bad" he erratically spoke noticing the decent sized pool of blood under David. "It's too late for me kid, no amount of praying or convenient deus ex machina's gonna help this." David said, his voice becoming more and more weak the longer he spoke. "No no no I can fix this I just need-" before Thomas could finish his sentence he was pulled closer to David. "Listen kid, I'm a wanted man. If there's a hell I'm probably got a reservation there already, but you don't. You’re a good man, I saw that the moment I found you in that office in Mexico" David groaned out before pushing Thomas away, "Now get down there and put two in that piece of shit for me and the old man will 'ya?" He finished as he leaned his head against the glass. Thomas, deciding to obey his friends wish, stood up and walked into the elevator and pushed the down button on the wall panel. The last thing he saw before the door closed was David's head leaning down, looking at the ground. It was a short elevator ride but it had felt like an eternity for Thomas, taken from his home, betrayed, shot, and now he was about to lose someone he was actually starting to consider a friend, if you can call your kidnapper turned companion a "friend". The elevator stopped and the door creeped open, Thomas readied his weapon and slowly exited the shaft. He saw Raymond standing in front of the altar with the old man on his knees, a large crowd of people dressed in red robes gathered shoulder to shoulder like a Jethro Tull concert. Before he could take another step, his gun was forced out of his hands and his body was thrown onto the ground. Both of his arms were taken by two opposing forces and he was dragged through the sea of people to the altar, Raymond turned around. "Thomas! Glad you could make it, your just in time" he said enthusiastically. "Time for what Raymond?" Thomas replied, Raymond looked at the crowd and then back to Thomas. "The beginning." 

"Now then, as much as I'd love to sit back and have a nice long chat about my plans with you, I've got better things to do, Don't we old man. Oh sorry, I mean Brother Michael" Raymond continued as he pointed his gun at Michael's head. He grabbed him by the arm and pushed him to the altar where a book and a metal bowl were placed, "Get on with it!" Raymond demanded, once more pointing the gun at the back of the old man's head. Michael began to flip pages from the book before stopping, he began to chant something in Latin, the crowd joined in the chanting, some saying it louder than others. The obelisk's markings began to glow snow white and the ground began to shake under their feet, Thomas looked around but nobody saw any reason to be scared or nervous, like they had been waiting for this. "He's coming" Michael said, two robed figures walked up to the altar and stood on opposite sides of him. "Good" Raymond said as he holstered his gun, Michael looked at Thomas in his peripheral vision, he gave a wink to him. Before Thomas could say anything Raymond plunged a knife into Michael's throat, cutting a line from ear to ear. Thomas tried to break free of his captors grip but it was useless, they were a hundred times stronger than he was, the people at the altar grabbed the bowl and put it below Michael's neck until it was filled to the brim. They brought it to Raymond who then poured the bowl's contents out near the base of the obelisk. It began to glow even brighter, Thomas swore he hard whispering coming from the large monument, Raymond placed his hand on the base. "I will become your vessel master, to be the flesh that you will abide in to conceive and father your seed for years to come. Will you have me master?" Raymond said directly to the obelisk. The scary part was Thomas couldn't figure out if he was serious or maybe he'd actually gone full blown insane, his suspicions were answered as the room began to violently shake, light began to engulf Raymond's body, and room followed suit.


	24. Chapter 24

As the light began to fade and everybody was able to see again they all noticed Raymond just standing there looking into the reflection of his knife, checking his mouth and face. Suddenly he put the knife down and turned around to face the crowd, "Don't be afraid humans, your master has returned." Raymond announced, it was his voice for sure but the room got colder when he spoke, like unspeakable evil has just been unleashed. Thomas looked at the new Raymond, what did he do, who was he talking too. Raymond turned to look at him, his eyes piercing his body and soul like rice paper, he began to walk towards Thomas. "I haven't forgotten about either Mr. Rutherford, your time will come, but first." He said before addressing the people once more, "You have all been loyal to me, more loyal than I'd ever expected from mortal humans. Before you all can witness the beginning, I require once thing of one of you." He began to pace back and fourth, "In order for your vision of a perfect unity to begin, I must ask one of you to do the hardest assignment you will complete in your lives. I ask one of you to step forward, surrender unto me your body and soul, and receive my seed." Almost without hesitation, one of the members of the crowd stepped forward before any others even moved a muscle. They stood directly in front of Raymond, completely unafraid of his demeanor, "I offer myself unto you my master, will you accept my offering?" It was a woman's voice. Raymond, or rather the entity who was possessing him gave her a nod of acceptance, the woman removed her robe and began to undress herself in front of him and Raymond did the same. They both had crawled on top of the altar ready to consummate whatever the hell this act would be, when suddenly a gunshot echo's through the room and a bullet goes clean through Raymond' s throat, Thomas looked around where the shot had come from and saw something he never thought was possible. It was David, hanging out the window with a revolver in his hand, but that was impossible Thomas thought, there were no weapons in that room except for his pistol. Before he could ponder the situation longer he noticed that Raymond was clutching his neck, his body emitting a sort of red lightning inside of his body. "TRAITORS, ALL OF YOU. I GIVE YOU POWER BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS, AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME!" Raymond screamed at the cultists, his voice giving any reasonable soul in the room fear that they'd never felt before, suddenly he ran into the crowd with the knife his vessel had used to kill Michael and charged into the crowd. 

It was a madhouse, people scrambling inside of the elevator to escape, people begging for their lives as they were disemboweled by the entity possessing Raymond's body. He had to find a way to get out of that room, but then he got an idea, the book was used to being in the entity, then that would mean there'd be a way to kick him back out. Thomas wasted no time, he rushed to the altar and scrambled to find where the book had gone around the obelisk and altar. As he searched he could still hear the screams of the people who had thought they would be rewarded for their devotion, but instead were being slaughtered by the very thing they worshiped. Finally Thomas found the book upside down and slammed it down on the altar, thankfully he remembered how many pages Michael flipped before reaching the summoning spell. It seemed that whoever made this book knew that there would be a problem like this, so they written a sort of undo spell in the other side of the page. The only problem now was that unfortunately it was also written in Latin, Thomas tried his best to sound out the words as best as he could, the obelisk began to glow once more. Raymond noticed it too, he turned around and ran towards the altar where Thomas was knife in hand, "You little maggot. I'll die before a disgusting sack of meat like you sends me back to hell!" Raymond lunged across the altar and Thomas ducked and ran to the other side of the room, suddenly a white light appeared in front of Raymond, temporarily blinding him. Realizing this opportunity, Thomas continued to recite the words on the page. The obelisk began to light up even more, suddenly chains appear from the wall, wrapping themselves around Raymond. The chains constricted his body, creating cracks of white light on his body. He began to scream in rage, the animalistic screams were powerful enough to shake the room once more. More cracks appeared on his face, his body began to cover his body with the white light from the obelisk, suddenly in a flash the white light completely engulfed the room. Thomas shielded his eyes before the light consumed all, but he thought before it all went white, he saw a man.


	25. Chapter 25

Thomas felt his whole body jerk underneath him as he closed his eyes, suddenly he heard the sounds of birds around him, the smell of vegetation around him, as he opened his eyes he realized he was no longer in the sacrificial room, but in a forest. He looked around confused at the sudden change in scenery, was he dead. "What the hell?" He whispered to himself. "Hello Thomas" a voice came from behind him, he turned around to see a man wearing khakis and a button up flannel looking back at him. "Where am I?" Thomas asked the man, "Colorado Springs, several miles from the mountain base I can assure you." The man replied, his answer surprised Thomas. How did he know about the base, did he try to get in too? "You don't have to be afraid Thomas, if it weren't for my intervention you and David would be mounds of ash on that concrete floor right not" the man continued, catching Thomas's attention. "How do you know about that?" he said, unsure if this man was friendly or not, he tried reaching for his gun but it was no longer there. "I know because I was the one who gave David the gun, the one gave you both directions, and the one who saved your lives." Thomas started to become more uneasy, was this man going to kill him, where was David, he said he saved him but he wasn't around. Wave after wave of questions swarmed his mind, but one question hit him the hardest. "What are you?" Thomas asked the stranger. The man stood there for a few seconds trying to piece together an acceptable answer, until the silence was broken. "I am one of many of our father's creations". 

The answer didn't really help Thomas understand what was happening. "Ok one of our father's creations like a angel or something?", the man didn't give a direct response, instead answering the question with another. "Would you like to see David?" Thomas couldn't believe his ears, of course he wanted to see him, the last time he did he was hanging out a broken window halfway to bleeding out. The walk was short. The conversations were even shorter. The man refused to answer personal questions like his name or where he was from. They walked to a small camp site where David was sitting next to the fire, he looked like he could run a marathon, "You can go see him" the man said as he waved his head to the site. Thomas walked up to David and they bother looked at each-other in surprise, neither of them had a solid idea how they made it out of that room much less alive. "I see you found our savior, pretty decent guy but can't take a joke to save his life" David said without looking up from the flame. The man walked back down the hill to speak with them again, "Now that you two are back you should get going, there's a town not too far from here, you can get a head start now if you move." The man put his hands in his pocket and started to walk into the forest in the opposite direction, "Wait!" Thomas said causing the man to stop and turn around, 'If you won't tell us what you are, can you tell us your name?" The man turned around again and started walking again back into the forest, "I have many names, you may call me Jeremiah" he said as he disappeared into the night.


	26. Chapter 26

The two of them had made it to the town Jeremiah spoke of, it was much shorter to walk to than they thought. On the walk there David discussed a want to turn himself in to the police, at first Thomas didn't think it was a good idea, "Way I see it, I've been free long enough. Time to give prison another shot" David joked. They walked the streets of the town, they looked at the sights and sounds all the while asking the locals for directions to the nearest police station. Soon enough they reached their destination, the police building, David began to walk but was stopped by Thomas's arm on his shoulder. "Are you sure about this dude, once you walk in that building there's no going back." David chuckled and lightly punched him in the arm, "Guess we won't know until we try" he said before hugging Thomas "You were a real pain in the ass, but a damn good man." He let go and walked across the street to the steps "See you on the other side kid" he yelled before walking up the steps and into the police building. 

Thomas, not knowing what to do now decided to take in the sights before finding a way home. As he turned around to leave he saw Jeremiah sitting in park bench several feet away from him. Thomas walked up to him and sat next to him, the man was eyeing the people passing by and the birds that had landed on the ground. "What a beautiful world our father created. I remember when your kind were just learning what fire did" he said with a slight smile on his face, "You’re an angel aren't you?" Thomas said with little certainty in his voice. "I suppose that's a fair assumption, I've called a cab driver to pick you up here, they'll be a plane waiting to take you home" the man said. And right on queue there came a mustard yellow car with the word "Taxi" on the side, "Thanks" Thomas said as he got up to walk away to the yellow chariot to freedom. "Try not to get involved with cults next time Thomas" Jeremiah said to him, Thomas turned around to respond with a joke but the man was gone, he chuckled before getting the back the cab and closing the door. The taxi cab slowly drove away, finally giving him the one thing Thomas wanted the most out of that whole adventure, freedom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I first had the idea to make this story last year but I had very little confidence in myself to make it. Flash forward to last month I decided to take a risk and write this bad boy. Please leave a kudos if you enjoyed, and please leave constructive criticism in the comments if you didn't or think I could do better, feedback is always appreciated.


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